Forget cancer -- Callwood's got a sports car and lots of fight left in her

SHANDA DEZIEL

Just weeks ago, June Callwood was nearly arrested. She and two other noted
authors, Mary Jo Leddy and Joy Kogawa, staged a sit-in at the Toronto
constituency office of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Judy Sgro, on behalf
of an Eritrean man who's been refused entry into Canada. The police were
prepared to take the women in for trespassing, but 80-year-old Callwood made a
last-minute phone call to the Prime Minister's Office, garnering a compromise --
and narrowly averting handcuffs.

The list of causes the Toronto journalist/ author/civil libertarian has taken on
is enough to make anyone feel inadequate. She co-founded a women's hostel
(Nellie's), a centre for pregnant teens (Jessie's) and an AIDS hospice (Casey
House). Callwood has also written nearly 30 books. And even after being
diagnosed with inoperable cancer last September, she is not letting any of us
off the hook. She's currently working on behalf of the Campaign Against Child
Poverty, testifying in front of Senate committees on various issues, teaching
Rick Mercer to kick a field goal on Monday Report, hanging out with babies at
Jessie's -- and hoping to take another solitary drive to Florida in her sports
car.

Since learning of her cancer, Callwood has refused chemotherapy and has publicly
embraced death -- but it's having a hell of a time catching up with her.
"My cancer's growing very slowly," she says. "I'm tired, and I
don't have energy toward the end of the day. Other than that, I'm okay."
So, despite being an expert on caregiving -- she hosted a TV show on the topic
and wrote Twelve Weeks in Spring, a non-fiction account of a group of women
looking after a cancer-stricken friend -- Callwood herself needs very little
help. "No, I don't need any caregiving," she says, "except for
people to be nice to me -- and that's happening."

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